Genealogy Chat

Sue - some wills are available on the National Archives site where you can download them for £3.50 each. Otherwise it's a trip to the records office.

n

dear bacardi
how did you obtain old wiils from past years do tell
thank you sue

One of the odder things in our house - something we have quite coincidentally - were my grandad's. He died when I was 1, then my gran died when I was 16 and one of the things we got was a little games table. It has a lid you can open - lie it flat and you can play draughts or chess because it's marked in squares. Inside it turned out Gran had stored playing cards, dominoes etc.

But also in there are my grandad's fishing licenses from 1984 and 1985, a slip of paper to do with renewing his driving licence (dated the year he was 74) and even fishing lines and hooks. It's amazing it's all survived so long.

In another box is a parish magazine from 1915 which mentions my gran's christening. Had these things been the property of my other grandma they would have been binned rather than saved in the first place.

Anything & everything, all of the above & more. I find out about the ships they travelled on, the places they lived, the occupations they were in.

I've got christening certificates, menus signed by parents, programs signed by grandparents (pre 1900), newspaper articles, parish records that are not BMD. Receipts for honeymoon & anniversary hotels, etc, etc, etc.

Most treasured of all is some patchwork (about the size of a tablecloth) that my great-grandmother made. She died in 1895.

When I come to the UK, I go to where they lived. Many of the places are no longer, so I take piccies of the parts they would remember - churches, older buildings, etc. My paternal grandmother's family lived on the site of the Conservative Club in Grantham for over 100 years. They would turn in their graves!

Ozi.

I have kept my dad's photo driving licence and his bus pass. Also his medical card. Cards sent to my mum from him on anniversaries, which is very touching cos my dad usually forgot such things, or so I thought. I've got the card his parents sent to him on his 21st birthday in 1946. Very few photos, sadly, the family didn't seem to do them.

Printouts from the Commonwealth Graves Commission website for relatives killed in WW1 or WW2, and service records if available.

I went onto a family member's website yesterday and she has attached copies of googlemaps of the location of her rellies to her tree. Makes it look really glam! Good idea, if the street is still standing today.

I intend to spend my retirement (retiring today 31st August) to get photos of rellies addresses, some a distance away so the mobile caravan will be in use!

Most important, though, is my dad's geranium plant. It lived in mum's porch for four years after he died and when we sold her house to pay for a care home, it was dead. And I mean dead. Dead dead. It is not dead any more. I brought it home, cut it down, and it sprouted. A long story, but we now have 5 fine plants that have flowered all summer, and still have the old root producing shoots. I aim to give my two daughters and my mum a geranium from Fred's old plant in the autumn. Photos for the family album.

Keep anything and everything, it is all part of your family's history.

Love to all

Margaret

I have travelled around and taken photos of houses that my ancestors lived in and churches where they married. Also photos of headstones.

I have the funeral bill for my grandmother in 1931 - It was (from memory as I haven't looked at it for a while) about £7 - which is what they charge us now just for a certificate!!

I have birth and death notices from newspapers and an obituary written about my grandfather (who had left my grandmother in the 1920's) which told me that he had married again, I found a daughter he had and it told me who was at the funeral, who had sent flowers and even who the undertakers were.

Kath. x

I've got the following:

BMD Certs
Census Images
Copies of Wills
Old Photos
Grave Photos
Copies of Parish Records
Photos of Family Bible
Photos/Transcription of Inquest report
Copies of letters
Medal Cards
Service Records
Newspaper articles


Most of the family think i am mad when i tell them i've been looking around cemetaries!

Thanks for your replies everyone:-)

It's amazing the different things we can find that make our ancestors come to life for us:-)

Regards

Bacardi XX

I have a postcard written by my grandfather to his grandfather. We believe it was written in the summer of 1905 as gg grandfather died in Feb 1906.

It was given to me by a cousin of my mother's, who I made contact with through hot matches. - how generous was that?

I've bought old maps. Most of mine stayed around the same town they were born and I have been able to plot their address through the years.

Hi
I discovered the purchase of an estate by my direct ancestor in 1768 which gives lots of details, and then the sale of the estate in 1800 which names the children it was shared between.
This was on the Hampshire Records Office website, and I had to visit Winchester to get copies of original documents. But well worth it.
Susan

I have old letters, photos,and one rather battered birth certificate from 1874 and my most treasured possessions,are my Dad's complete Royal Navy service records spanning his service from 1937 to 1949, his medals, along with many other of his items.
I also have career details of one of my GTGT GT Uncles who was a professional cricketer in the 1860/50s

I have original interrment records, telegrams, a will and pedigree record, newspaper reports (one of mine was a murderer) and an old works contract.
I do keep encouraging my elderly relatives to have sort outs and pass me all their old stuff. :o))

xx

Hi

I like to ask how did u find newspaper cuttings of BMDs pls

So far i only have census, certifcates, a few photos and some pictures of gravestone... but not that many.

Clare

Other than BMD's and Census records, I'm interested to find what other information people collect about their ancestors??

So far, I have got several wills, a couple of medal cards, a service record, lots of photo's of grave stones, and quite a few newspaper cuttings of BMD's. I'm currently trying to track down some information about some ancestors, that I've found prosecutors bills for - I understand that I need to check out the quarter sessions books for this info so hopefully.........

What other information do you collect or have you found?

Bacardi XX